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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807549">How You Fly</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentined/pseuds/Valentined'>Valentined</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Jak and Daxter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Jak and Keira are friends, even when they're pretty Aeropan pirates, he supports her romantic interests, who look like that gay racer from Kras</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:33:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,240</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Valentined/pseuds/Valentined</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“You think you know how to fly,” Jak said quietly, eyes still on the sky, “but you don’t.”</p>
<p>Phoenix glared. “And you do, of course.”</p>
<p>“Of course.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Past Keira Hagai/Jak, Phoenix (Jak and Daxter)/Keira Hagai</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>How You Fly</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>An old fic that I keep wanting to link people to but can never find because it was part of a fanfic meme from over ten years ago.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Phoenix could tell he had a long night ahead of him when he turned to ask Keira some bit of advice regarding the page in his hand, only one small part of the mess of maps and plans littered about the bed, and found her sound asleep. One hand was tucked carefully under her pillow, the other just barely looped about his waist, and from the depth of her breathing she’d been just like that for quite a while.</p>
<p>The pirate captain sighed; he really could have used her guidance, but nonetheless couldn’t help but smile. Such a beautiful woman, and so <em>brilliant</em>…</p>
<p>He was lucky to have her, really. He wondered if Jak had ever understood what kind of treasure he’d been traveling with, how little he deserved it.</p>
<p>Phoenix had better things to worry about than Jak’s relationship with Keira—or any relationships at all, really—but the important things just didn’t seem to stick right now. Battle tactics and eco transport flight plans were all well and good, but he just couldn’t focus.</p>
<p>And so, very carefully, he removed Keira’s arm from his waist and slipped out of bed. Pulling on a pair of slacks and reaching up to touch the firebird-emblazoned pendant around his neck, hanging low on his chest, he padded out of the room and to the nearest lift.</p>
<p>Up to the deck. There would be a few lookouts up, but otherwise he’d be alone. It had to be midnight at the least, and some night air would do him some good—either in clearing his head or getting to sleep, it didn’t matter.</p>
<p>Anything but another hour of maps and figures.</p>
<p>Stepping off the lift, he gave a nod to the man stationed in the crow’s nest, then moved to step around the main cannon and toward the railing.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seemed a certain someone had the same idea, most likely significantly earlier. Phoenix stopped a full two yards from the edge and narrowed his eyes at the diminutive young man sitting with his legs hanging over the rail.</p>
<p>“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”</p>
<p>“Could say the same to you,” Jak replied, not moving from his perch. He lacked his goggles, armor, tunic—everything but his pants, same as Phoenix.</p>
<p>The moon was full, more than enough light to see by, and the pirate frowned at the sharp, carefully defined scarring carved into Jak’s back. He could assume it curled around to his chest as well, and while he wanted to ask he knew better than to do so.</p>
<p>He knew the kind of damage a few Dark Eco treatments could do to a man, recognized the incisions. But Jak’s were so old, healed long enough to have tanned over more than once, enough to slowly but surely start fading into the rest of his skin. Phoenix hadn’t been aware of Skyheed’s pet project for long before being proclaimed an outlaw, there was really no telling how long it had been going before the first success.</p>
<p>From the age of those scars, Phoenix assumed Jak had been a very early subject.</p>
<p>“The difference is that this is my ship,” Phoenix stated. “I have free rein of every inch of it. You’re a guest here, and I say that you should be in bed.”</p>
<p>Jak rolled his eyes and shook his head just slightly. “I outgrew <em>bedtime</em> before I hit Haven. If you don’t want to see me, you can go to the other side of the ship.”</p>
<p>Phoenix glared. “The wind is better on this side. I’m out here for the same reason as you seem to be. I need some air. And the funny thing, that I suppose you might be unaware of, is that wind? Is made from air.”</p>
<p>“Genius statement,” Jak chuckled. “But that’s not why I’m out here.”</p>
<p>Fixing his hands on his hips, the captain’s tone hardened. “Then you shouldn’t have a problem going back belowdeck where you belong.”</p>
<p>“I’m out here,” Jak continued, as though Phoenix hadn’t spoken at all, “because I miss flying. Good weather for flying tonight.” There was a smile to his voice that Phoenix found unfamiliar, a calmness and quietude entirely alien to the Jak he’d come to know.</p>
<p>He covered up his confusion at the sound of Jak’s voice with a snappish assertion of, “Oh, and I’m sure you would know all about flying. You’ve been through training and academies and all kinds of battles, you’re probably an expert.”</p>
<p>“You think you know how to fly,” Jak said quietly, eyes still on the sky, “but you don’t.”</p>
<p>Phoenix glared. “And you do, of course.”</p>
<p>Jak smiled just slightly, leaning back a little on the railing, still not giving Phoenix so much as a sideways glance. “Of course.”</p>
<p>“Do you honestly wonder why Keira’s chosen my bed over yours when you behave like this?” The pirate captain steeled for a response, tensed for some reaction, but Jak remained unmoved, staring out into the cloudy night sky. Phoenix couldn’t stand to be ignored, couldn’t stand Jak’s arrogance. He’d been on the Brink for what, three months? And he already thought he was better in the sky than Phoenix, who’d been doing this the better part of his life. “Well?”</p>
<p>Jak shrugged.</p>
<p>“Your childish conceit knows no bounds.”</p>
<p>Jak chuckled, the sound oddly light. “You think I’m lying.”</p>
<p>“I <em>know</em> you’re lying,” came the immediate response.</p>
<p>Now, at last, Jak looked at him with blue eyes that bore not a hint of Dark madness. “I can show you.”</p>
<p>Phoenix rolled his eyes. “Oh, by all means, show me.”</p>
<p>Jak stood up on the railing; the move took the older man aback for a moment, and he looked on with confusion as Jak spread his arms and took a deep breath.</p>
<p>A glow kindled under his skin, faint enough to ignore as a trick of the moonlight, really. Phoenix nonetheless took wary step back.</p>
<p>“If you jump, Keira will have my head.”</p>
<p>Jak slanted him another smile, eyes brighter by the heartbeat, and tipped forward over the side of the ship without a word or a move to catch the rail, without so much as a tensing of his muscles as he fell.</p>
<p>Phoenix jerked, rushing forward the moment Jak’s center of balance tipped too far for the idiot to catch himself, but was too far away to take hold of the younger man himself—and a sudden flash of light made him balk just before he could even look over the railing.</p>
<p>A glowing blur of crystal blue shot past, up into the air, and Phoenix all but stumbled away with a short bark of “What the—”</p>
<p>The shimmering creature circled the ship, up and over and under and up again, graceful as a bird and just as fast—faster, even, too fast for Phoenix to follow as it came back up and landed behind him, bare feet once again on the cold metal guardrail around the perimeter of the deck.</p>
<p>“Phoenix,” he said, voice a whisper of echoes and bells.</p>
<p>The pirate turned, eyes going wide as he looked the creature Jak had become up and down. The tang of light eco, so rare but so completely unforgettable, was sharp in the air, all purity and sweetness.</p>
<p>Jak furled his wings, delicate glowing tendrils curling inward, the light under his skin intensifying as the extra limbs coiled behind him.</p>
<p>“<em>This</em> is how you fly.”</p>
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